By Vicki Hess

I’ve been listening to the podcast, “How I Built This” with host Guy Raz, which shares interesting stories of entrepreneurs who started their own businesses. Some of the recent episodes include the founders of JetBlue, Eileen Fisher Clothing and Compaq Computers.

As an entrepreneur, I’m inspired by the creativity and resilience these business leaders demonstrated in starting their enterprises in spite of small and large hurdles. As the title of the podcast shares, the stories are about building and growth.

This got me thinking about how these ideas relate to you – the leaders and individuals working in healthcare today.

What are you building?
What stories would you share if you were the podcast guest?

Leaders and employees in healthcare fall into the category of a Builder or a Buster based on day-to-day performance on the job. The Performance Triangle demonstrates 3 key drivers of workplace behavior: Ability, Opportunity and Motivation.

Here’s What Builders Do in Each Category…

When it comes to Motivation, Builders are: 

• • Highly engaged and connected to what makes them satisfied, energized & productive.
  • Internally driven to problem solve and find solutions.
  • Open and eager about change.

When it comes to Ability, Builders are:

• • Excited about learning, growth and development
  • Happy to volunteer for stretch assignments.
  • Accepting of feedback which promotes improved ability.

When it comes to Opportunity, Builders are:

• • Open to finding new opportunities within their current job role.
  • Ready to dive in when opportunities arise.
  • Aware that opportunity comes in many different forms.
  
  

What have you done in the last few days to earn that title?

Don’t Be a Buster
A Buster is someone who does the opposite of the behaviors shown above.

Busters are disengaged and come to work and tear down others. They suck the energy out of meetings and customer encounters. They are great at pointing fingers and laying blame. Most folks don’t self-identify as Busters; however, they demonstrate the behaviors that would define them as just that.

For today, think about how you would identify yourself. Builder or Buster? Engaged or Disengaged? Satisfied or Dissatisfied?

Today’s challenge is to look at one part of the Performance Triangle and figure out how to build your capacity in that area.

Looking for your next healthcare speaker? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to make your healthcare event a success!

By Vicki Hess

As humans, we need to connect. This is a critical part of the leader’s role in engaging employees. 

But the news is bleak when it comes to connecting…here are a just few of the findings from a survey which Cigna conducted of 20K+ U.S. adults:

• Nearly half of Americans report sometimes or always feeling alone or left out.
• One in four Americans rarely or never feel as though there are people who really understand them.
• Two in five Americans sometimes or always feel that their relationships are not meaningful and that they are isolated from others.
• One in five people report they rarely or never feel close to people or feel like there are people they can talk to.

“The findings reinforce the social nature of humans and the importance of having communities. People who are less lonely are more likely to have regular, meaningful, in-person interactions; are in good overall physical and mental health; have achieved balance in daily activities; and are employed and have good relationships with their coworkers.”

What are you doing in your role to promote positive connections?

When I talk to leaders about Creating Connections, I hear about two types:

1. Chance Connections
2. Conscious Connections

Chance Connections
Chance Connections are those that are reactive in one way or another. Having an Open-Door Policy is an example. It’s good but doesn’t set a very high bar. Have you ever heard of an organization with a “Closed Door Policy”?

Here’s what usually happens…you open your door and sit and wait (and mostly hope that no one stops by so that you can get your “real work” done uninterrupted – haha). It’s important to be accessible. So, keep your door open and understand that you are leaving the connection to chance.

The second type of Chance Connection is rounding. In this case, you are the interruption to the staff member. Staff are in the middle of their “real work” and you’re stopping by might be a welcome break or an annoying inconvenience.

Don’t get me wrong, rounding is very important because not only do you make connections, you also get a visual of how things are going. Keep rounding with staff, just know that you are still leaving the connection to chance.

Conscious Connections

The most powerful kind of connection is a Conscious Connection – where both you and the team member are proactive and prepared. This happens in a One-on-One (1:1) Meeting (either virtually or in-person).

One question I routinely ask leaders in my client needs assessment is “What do you know you should be doing related to engagement and aren’t and why? I’ve asked this question to thousands of leaders and the number one thing they aren’t doing is meeting one-on-one with team members.

Many leaders struggle with making Conscious Connections.

The number one reason why they aren’t doing it is that “there isn’t enough time.” In follow up conversations, I hear the second reason it’s not happening is that there’s a perception that it’s not worth the time.

Of course, these two challenges go hand in hand. If you don’t think something is worth your time, then you aren’t going to make time for it.

Make Time for Meetings

Here’s one thing I know. Your actions and behaviors reflect your beliefs and mindsets. If you believe that meeting 1:1 with your direct reports is important – you will make the time.

Try these ideas:

1. Identify your biggest time wasters (email, unnecessary meetings, distractions that are urgent but not important).
2. Determine which time wasters you can eliminate to free up the time to spend with your team.
3. Put Conscious Connections on your calendar. Stop thinking these meetings will happen on their own.
4. Get creative for how to have 1:1 meetings using technology. FaceTime; Zoom and Go to Meeting are all ways to virtually meet with members of your team. Ask IT for help if you’re not familiar with what’s available.

Make the Meetings Worthwhile 

What makes a 1:1 meeting so powerful is that both you and your direct report are prepared for the conversation. It’s a Conscious Connection. That alone adds to the value.

Try these ideas:

1. Share your “Why” related to 1:1 meetings. Why are they important to you? Why will the employee benefit from them?
2. Share the agenda in advance to give everyone a chance to think about it.
3. Use the Satisfaction Snapshot ™ as a conversation starter. This tool is a powerful way to change the conversation about engagement…and who is responsible for it.

Now is the time to create Conscious Connections and positively impact engagement – yours and your team’s. Enjoy!

Looking for your next healthcare speaker? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to make your healthcare event a success!

By Vicki Hess

​Have you ever noticed how feelings of joy might be fleeting, but anger seems to stick around? I’m working on a new keynote about resilience called Journey to Joy™ and this process has me thinking a lot about joy and anger.

We have all experienced anger at work. According to Science of People, “psychologists have discovered that there are three causes of anger:

1. Our desires, goals or expectations are not met.
2. We feel threatened.
3. We’re trying to hide other emotions.”

It’s easy to see how healthcare professionals in all roles can experience these causes at work…especially #1.

​When you’re angry your body releases stress hormones that lead to a fight or flight response. Over time, if anger persists, these hormones can lead to headaches, increased blood pressure and more. The external ramifications of anger may also include damaged relationships and work-related performance issues.

When you’re cool, calm and collected, this all makes sense but in the heat of the moment, when your hot buttons are being pushed, it can be difficult.

What most folks want to know is what to do with the anger. It’s not good to ignore those feelings. Repressing the anger can lead to a bigger burst down the road and that’s not healthy either.

My suggestion is to SHIFT from anger to joy. Some of you have heard me speak or read my work about SHIFTing your POWs to WOWs and these steps may look familiar.

Here are 5 steps to shrink the anger and choose joy:

• Stop and breath.
• Harness your harmful knee-jerk reactions.
• Identify and manage your negative emotions.
• Find new options.
• Take one positive action.

Now it’s your turn to choose Joy! See you in Professional Paradise.

Looking for your next healthcare speaker? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to make your healthcare event a success!

By Vicki Hess

Have you heard of any these lately?

“It’s not fair!”
“My boss is never around – how can she understand?”
“You’ve got to be kidding, they want us to do what?”
“Wah, Wah, Wah”

I’m running into a lot of overworked people these days. People everywhere are reporting higher productivity goals, longer working hours and less satisfying work. It’s a big bummer!

I get it. I have bad days at work too. Yes, even though I talk about being the Chief Paradise Officer (CPO) of my job, I still get bogged down in the “work” part of work every now and again. It’s no fun.

Sometimes I forget I can be in the driver’s seat and steer my work experience in any direction I want. Sound familiar?

Guess what? It doesn’t matter that crummy things happen at work. Unfortunately, unless you’re in charge of everything (and even sometimes when you are), you probably can’t do anything to put a stop to all the frustrations that pop up.

Of course, you should spend time using process improvement efforts to minimize challenges that are within your control…who wouldn’t want to do that? But, the Blame Game has never been one of my favorites.

Let’s talk about boosting your own job satisfaction by getting the driver’s seat.

I have a morning meditation practice. Recently, the guided meditation was about promoting inner happiness. I love that. I love connecting to someplace WITHIN ME – not having to count on anyone else – to find my own joy and well-being. Don’t you? If you aren’t sure how to meditate, check out Insight Timer – a free app for meditating that is super easy to use and has meditations from 1 minute to many.

Here are several easy to implement, high impact ideas for taking back control of your own job satisfaction and engagement. Pick a few that seem realistic to incorporate into your life RIGHT NOW so that you too, can officially claim the title of Chief Paradise Officer!

1)  Take Good Care of Yourself
◦    Meditate (see the link above)
◦    Stretch (your body and mind)
◦    Do fun things (whatever that means to you)
◦    Read (inspirational books)
◦    Sing (songs that make you Happy)
◦    Run around (playing sports, chasing kids, by yourself)
◦    Relax (without electronics)
◦    Sleep (make it a priority and create positive routines)
◦  Create Gratitude Triggers™ (every morning or night write down 5 things you are grateful for)
◦    Believe (in whatever makes you feel grateful and joyful)
​
2)  Decide to be the Chief Paradise Officer of your Life
◦    Believe (that it’s possible to enjoy work)
◦    Smile (fake it until you make it)
◦    Be nice to others (they are struggling too)
◦    Stop complaining (no one wants to hear about it)
◦    Breathe (over and over, deeply)
◦   Quit taking things personally (unless you’ve been really mean, it’s not personal)
◦    Take a break (you deserve it and you’ll do better work if you take one)
◦    Give yourself permission to be happy (put that skip back in your step)
Let me know how you improve your job satisfaction - I’m interesting in hearing from you!

Looking for your next healthcare speaker? Get in touch with us today to make your healthcare event a success!